One of the biggest sporting events of the year took place Friday, Nov. 15, and to say it was a disappointment would be an understatement. Iron Mike Tyson, one of the greatest boxers of his era, took on viral Jake Paul, one of the greatest YouTubers of this era, in what was supposed to be a matchup that would never be forgotten. Instead, by the end of the bout, it left us wondering why this fight even took place.
This was never supposed to be a serious fight, and the hype and hollering from both sides tricked many. Paul is a master promoter, something he learned during his early YouTube days, and he’s transitioned those skills perfectly to professional boxing. Paul selected relevant, popular opponents, yet ones who wouldn’t cause him too much trouble, hence why he has an 11-1 record currently. His first ever fight was against popular YouTuber Deji in 2018, and once he saw the success of that, Paul ran with it. He scheduled and won fights against former NBA player Nate Robinson, former Olympic mixed martial artist Ben Askren, and UFC fighter Nate Diaz. All of these fights and the monetary success that followed them led him to his biggest opponent to date, namely, Tyson.
Tyson, not Paul, attracted Netflix
The reason this fight was so big that Netflix decided to foot the bill for it was because of Tyson, not Paul. At the end of the day, the lure of seeing Tyson back in the ring was too much to deny, and more than 60 million households streaming the boxing event speaks to that. Everybody knew Tyson was old, but because of the pre-fight hype and the weigh-in slap, nobody even cared that Tyson is two years away from 60. We ignored every ounce of common sense that yelled at us—a 60-year-old should not be fighting a 27-year-old. By the second round, most of the world had returned to their senses.
Tyson should have never been in that ring. He looked good the first round, as any former professional boxer would. You don’t forget years of habits and training. But just because you can do it for one round doesn’t mean you can do it for eight, which we quickly found out. By the time the third and fourth rounds came, it was clear Tyson was fatigued, and even with all his training, his body was still one of an almost-60-year-old. And Paul took full advantage.
Death by a thousand cuts
He lit up Tyson with punch after punch. Paul didn’t land any serious punches on Tyson, as neither opponent was knocked down, but he definitely landed a lot more. Tyson connected on a total of 18 punches across eight rounds; in comparison, Paul landed 16 punches in the third round alone. Tyson was exhausted by the end of the second round, and Paul just kept coming, finishing with 78 punches landed. Tyson lost this fight by death by a thousand cuts.
His legacy will feature a similar fate. Tyson has one of the greatest boxing legacies ever, and he allowed it to be disgraced and belittled by a YouTuber and a couple million dollars. This match was a lot of people’s first time seeing Tyson in an actual fight and many people’s first time seeing him since the 90’s, and this is what they will remember.
Legacy, shmegacy
In one of the more viral prefight clips, Tyson said he didn’t care about legacy and proved that over the weekend. Now a guy who, in all honesty, shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath as Tyson will forever have bragging rights over him. He will go on podcast after podcast and say, “I beat up Mike Tyson,” and I promise he won’t be using those same words or saying it respectfully. Tyson sold out for the check, and this hit is one his legacy won’t recover from. It’s worse than biting Evander Holyfield’s ear off. It’s worse than losing one of the biggest boxing upsets ever to Buster Douglas. It was worse than his cameo in The Hangover.
The Bible says in Proverbs, “A good name is better than great riches,” and after being taken to school by Paul during the fight, Tyson might need to be taken to a church next.
